this minute

what's going on

I think my blogs are sometimes not exactly stories from my travels so much as questions raised and random thoughts...

So, here's a really quick update of what's going on here.

We're about to eradicate scabies from the baby orphanage hopefully. Damn, it's been a long time coming seeing as we can't get the appropriate treatment in Viet Nam but some of this month's volunteers brought some with them and hopefully it will be sorted soon.
We're working on a plan to get rid of the head lice at Home of Affection. How? They all go out every day to school, where most of the other kids have nits too. But we can't do nothing.

The library at Home of Affection is going amazingly! The kids love reading so so much, it's amazing we never thought of it sooner. I worry how it will go when I'm gone seeing as it's a difficult enough melee to manage but the kids know the score at this stage so I guess they'll be able to help the future volunteers.

The daily activities at Baby Orphanage is rocking their socks! Mondays we do music. Tuesdays are sports days. Wednesday is crafts. Thursday is dressup and then Friday is catchup on a day we ended up missing or a random mix of everything or 'spa day' or whatever. They love it so much. I think dress up is the one they love the most. But we're hoping that sports day will teach them some games they can play together when we're not there. It's not as common as you might think for them to play together. There are a few couples of best friends but mostly they sort of seem to hang out alone, or in the babies room helping out. It's a pity really.

My class at Home of Affection are doing so well with their English. They were actually scarily quiet and attentive this evening. Usually I have to do a little pleading to get them to sit down but they were all up for it tonight. And they've almost got Three Blind Mice down pat. Apart from Khanh who is just too cool for singing.......Gah!

Sofia reached her $10,000 goal for her headshave, amazing, wonderful and beautiful! Her hair is growing at the rate of knots. Although Tam, a most beautiful four month old girl at BO still has longer hair than her after getting her crazy mohawk chopped off.
We're spending that dosh like you wouldn't believe too. Buying cribs, mattresses, new kitchen utensils and bowls/spoons etc. Nappies, babywipes and all that jazz are on the monthly expenditure list now and well, it won't last forever but it's going to go a long long way.

And my calendar, designed by the lovely Ems and sold by my awesome folks, has brought in approx $5,000. When I think about it, it's crazy! When I decided to stay I really didn't have the money to pay for my accommodation etc. But I figured that I was coming here to do a good job and that the universe is perfect and I would trust that it work out ok. I was hoping to raise about $1,200 maybe, if I was lucky. Man, was I lucky! And the kids too, that money has bought so much, you wouldn't believe. I have a list of everything though!

The kids at Disabled Hospital are continuing to make progress and make us believe in the baby massage and physio goals that Roz taught us all while she was here. It's amazing to see some of them improve so much in such a short space of time. Sinh is actually focussing on faces now and not just his fingers and he's talking and moving and getting really angry at the hot weather!

Although I don't have favourite kids, or at least don't show favouratism, I'll give a wee rundown on a few of the mitchers.
Hieu seems to be over his bellyaches. It was really getting him down for ages but he's not nearly as clingy as he used to be, happy days for him. He's a three year old version of Brad Pitt as far as I'm concerned. Gorgeous!
Choi is now getting ready to start walking. I took her into training for it a few weeks ago and they've had to move her into a bigger crib to stop her climbing out now. Nice work!
Han, the beautiful five year old little lady with CP is going great guns wth her new family in Texas. She's even going to school now, which with her attention span and demand for attention I can imagine is difficult but I'm sure she loves it.
Thao has started calling round to the house a lot. I worry it will do her more harm than good when I'm gone, incase the volunteers don't let her in but she's just such a sweetheart I can't refuse her. Maybe I'll start shortening her visits soon. But combing all the lice out of her head on Monday afternoon and letting her take a shower here was just to easy to not to. She's nine and she really don't smell so good usually, it couldn't hurt for her to have a hot shower once in her life could it?

And of course, it's never all good. The scabies has really taken it's toll on all the kids, it's so awful. Listening to Sofi articulate how bad she feels and then comparing how her skin looks to theirs made me realise how awful they must actually feel. They had blisters and everything. Covered.
Sofi and Mr Tuan had to take a six year old girl to the hospital today - she's been sick for a year and her poor poor parents in the mountains didn't realise there was anything they could do for her. It might be too late to really repair the damage, her spine is curved right over from lying in pain all day every day not moving. It doesn't bear thinking about - her pain or the helplessness her parents must be feeling. They're from so far up in the mountains they don't even speak much Vietnamese, (they have their own language in many hilltribes). It must be so difficult for them.

For all the good work we're doing it's still never enough for some kids. In Da Nang, four kids have run away from the Social Support Centre in the last week. GVN needs to set up it's own foster home asap, but that's going to be very diffcult. Paperwork will be the least of the worries.

Ok, so if you're not bored by now, I'll update this with some pictures soon.

As always, thanks y'all for reading.